Vesuvius Plot is dedicated to the mountain that never sleeps, Mount Vesuvius, still active after 2000 years.

The author visited Pompeii in the Amalfi Coast on her second trip to Rome she was 15 years old. She took a one day tour from the eternal city down the coast to the most famous archaeological ruin that exists anywhere. She was anxious to take notes and photographs for her Latin one class back at the high school.

She followed closely behind the guide all the way through the town, looking from left to right at all the ruined houses and artworks and taking copious notes. The guide would not allow her, her mother, or her sister to visit the art gallery devoted to nude statues and other controversial artwork. He would allow only her brother, even though he was younger, and her father to take the tour. Later she was able to view the artworks in various coffee table books that showed the reader the statues and paintings that now reside mostly in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples. She was able to view Mount Vesuvius in the distance alongside of the Bay of Naples. That volcano probably made a bigger impression than anything else. It was easy to imagine even for a 15-year-old what it must’ve been like that day at noon time on August 24 79 A.D. When the volcano erupted. Up until now the author has never dealt with that event in any of her novels. She thought it was fitting that it become the subject the novel of its own entitled the Vesuvius Plot.

Here we follow the adventures of the grandson of the hero of the Cherusci Plot as he joins the administration of Pliny the Elder at Trier where the government then resided in the province of Germany. The ancestors of Arminius, Hermann the German, are still trying to resist Roman rule. In particular they are targeting Pliny the Elder because of his work entitled the Germania, which has since been lost. The governor, a famous scientist and philosopher and author of the encyclopedic natural history, the first encyclopedia ever written, criticized the Germans for being barbaric and outside the Roman world. This was an accusation that the descendants of Hermann the German were not likely to forget or forgive.

They follow Pliny the Elder and Caius Antonius back to Italy during the summer of 79 A.D. While the volcano blows its top they try to decide who will rule the Western world – will it be the Romans or will it be the Germans, under the sign of the swastika, symbol of their ancient religion, after all?

Another one of Dora Benley’s Roman novels, Caesar’s Lost Legions, will be published next year in 2019 on the Ides of March, March 15. It is the successor of Julia: A Romance. It will be published in a hardcover,paperback, and ebook edition. But the hardback and paperback will be available only on the website: http://www.edwardwarethrillers.org.

Augustus has sent Caelius Antonius to the Roman province of Germania in 9 AD to draw a map to lead the legions as far East as the River Elbe. Caelius awakens to find Thor’s hammer engraved in the tree bark outside his tent. Is that a warning?

Caesar Augustus has sent Caelius Antonius to the Roman province of Germania in 9 AD to draw a map of wonders that will lead the legions to a promised land as far East as the River Elbe. There are reports of a sea port that would serve as a highway to lands as yet unnamed.

Augustus’s ward, Arminius, a model German turned Roman, has volunteered to lead the legions of Varus there. Caelius awakens one night to find a symbol of Thor’s hammer engraved in the tree bark outside his tent. He senses a spy from some disaffected tribe watching him. He reports the spy to Varus who defers to Arminius. Arminius says that all the Germans are of course watching, delighted that the Romans have come to civilize their benighted country.

Evidence builds of a conspiracy. Caelius reports it to Augustus back in Rome personally. But Augustus refuses to listen. Arminius was his ward who had lived in his house in Rome, and Caesar had never had a son of his own. Arminius was his blind spot. As a warning to Caelius, Caelius’s wife is kidnapped. No matter what, Caelius must defend his maps to the death. They hold the key to Rome’s future. He hopes that neither he nor his wife must die to realize it.

Join Edward’s long ago ancestor, Caelius, in his adventures on the far frontiers ofthe Roman Empire in Germany. They echo the adventures his latter day descendant, Edward Ware, will someday face in his own map plots against the latter-day Germans.

Here is the substance of the debate that took place today at 10AM. Want to see the fascinating photos? Go to the website at http://www.edwardwarethrillers.org. Click on Old Faithful Affair Debate.

1)How likely is the Yellowstone supervolcano to blow in the near future?

Linda Lacey: I hope not very soon.

Professor Evans: Yellowstone is a seething, supervolcano with active forces beneath the earth’s surface. What we know of the park is merely a caldera of a giant, ancient and yet still active volcano for sure. Someday it will explode with catastrophic results. But the odds of it going off anytime soon are very low.

Linda Lacey: But if it is that dangerous how do you know?

Professor Evans: Geologic time is much longer than human history. All of human history is just a blip. What we think of as a long time is nothing. In fact current superintendent of Yellowstone is more afraid of Old Faithful ceasing to erupt when he is superintendent than the chance of the park blowing up.

2)Could Hitler have engineered an eruption?

Linda Lacey: I bet he could have. He did everything else bad and evil.

Professor Evans: There is no known way to engineer a volcanic eruption. There has been much discussion and even experiments. But nothing has resulted from it yet.

Linda Lacey: Is is the realm of fiction?

Professor Evans: Exactly. That is what you encounter in the alternative history thriller, Old Faithful Affair.

3)What would Pliny the Elder have thought of Hitler? Is there evidence over 2000 years?

Linda Lacey: How could there be?

Professor Evans: Pliny the Elder was one of the chief Roman intellectuals and learned men. He wrote the first of all encyclopedias used for hundreds of years afterwards and referred to by people as late as the eighteenth century. Jefferson admired him for instance.

Linda Lacey: Pliny wasn’t one of the Founding Fathers!

Professor Evans: He could have been as far as learning goes. And despite being a Roman we have plenty of evidence he would never have approved of Hitler or any tyrant or dictator.

Linda Lacey: But wait a minute! In the first century AD when Pliny lived, emperors ruled Rome. They were dictators and tyrants. So what do you mean?

Professor Evans: Pliny laid low and wrote only about leaves and plants during the reign of Nero. He did not want to attract attention to himself. But the Spanish Emperor Vespasian was a personal friend of his and patron of the arts and learning as was his son and successor Titus, another friend of Pliny. He believed in enlightened despots.

Linda Lacey: That isn’t what Americans believe in. There aren’t any Emperors here, not even kings.

Professor Evans: No, but for a Roman in antiquity that was pretty advanced. It was before the Industrial Revolution, before the Reformation, and before everything necessary to create democracy and capitalism. All they could hope for was enlightened despots. Otherwise they thought they had the rule of the mob.

Linda Lacey: I’m glad I didn’t live back then.

4)Why didn’t the Romans defeat the Germans in ancient times?

Linda Lacey: They seemed to defeat everybody else.

Professor Evans: The Romans didn’t devote the resources to defeating the Germans in ancient times. They thought the Germans were like the Gauls, easy to conquer and civilize. They expected them to grow grapes along the banks of the Rhine and perhaps further East the Elbe, too, as they had taught them to do. They were surprised when the Germans under Arminius attacked their legions in the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest in 9 AD and slaughtered them. Ever after they never advanced the borders of the Roman Empire past the Rhine.

Linda Lacey: I thought the Romans were really good at conquering tribes and stuff.

Professor Evans: The Germans were also good at imitating military techniques that they learned from the Romans. That is what Arminius did. He learned from the Romans and then betrayed them.

Linda Lacey: I thought the Romans were really good at conquering tribes and stuff. The Romans wouldn’t take an insult sitting down.

Professor Evans: Yes, they sent Germanicus to get the Romans’ revenge in 14AD under Tiberius. But they didn’t stay. They retreated to the Rhine and the Moselle and remained there for the rest of antiquity.

Livia: A Novel by Dora Benley will be free on Amazon Kindle starting Monday.

Livia has just returned from her search to find her fiance, Octavius, heir of Julius Caesar, in the wake of Caesar’s assassination. Octavius has fled Rome, and she was trying to save his life. She gets captured by pirates for all her trouble. When she finally catches up with her fiance she can no longer marry him. She learns that her own family, the Claudians, were behind Julius Caesar’s assassination. She can be Octavius’s mistress and nothing more. A proud girl, she spurns the thought and figures she must give him up for good.
Livia describes herself in her diary at this sad impasse:

“I can just imagine what I looked like: long coils of black hair curled in ringlets plas­tered all over my face, my neck, my bosom, and my shoulders — pasted on by dried salt and brine. A red silk dress clinging to my figure and slipping down over one shoulder a bit too far. Here and there still a jeweled earring or ankle bracelet poking through as a sad legacy from my other life. Looking all together like a prow ornament that had been fished up from the depths after some long ago shipwreck.”

At this low point of her life Livia would be surprised to learn that she will somebody marry the man she loves and stay married to him for 52 years. It will become one of the most legendary matches in Roman history and one of the most historically important, too. Just how this comes about is the story of this piece of fiction: Livia: A Novel by Dora Benley, another one of this author’s ancient Greek and Roman novels.

If you liked this story about ancient Rome for young adults, this novel about Livia and Augustus, you will also like Book of the Dead, Helen of Troy, Cleopatra’s Stone, Caesar and Cleopatra: A Novel, Julia: A Romance, Julius Caesar: A Novel, Medea the Witch, and Jason and Medea: A Novel.

A new cover sketch has arrived for Caesar’s Lost Legions, drawn by Daniel Teran, the cover artist. We include it with this blog post.

Caesar Augustus has sent Caelius Antonius to the Roman province of Germania in 9 AD to draw a map of wonders that will lead the legions to a promised land as far East as the River Elbe. There are reports of a a sea port that would serve as a highway to lands as yet unnamed.

Augustus ward, Arminius, a model German turned Roman, has volunteered to lead the legions of Varus there. Caelius awakens one night to find a symbol of Thor’s hammer engraved in the tree bark outside his tent. He senses a spy from some disaffected tribe watching him. He reports the spy to Varus who defers to Arminius. Arminius says that all the Germans are of course watching, delighted that the Romans have come to civilize their benighted country.

Evidence builds of a conspiracy. Caelius reports it to Augustus back in Rome personally. But Augustus refuses to listen. Arminius was his ward who had lived in his house in Rome, and Caesar had never had a son of his own. Arminius was his blind spot. As a warning to Caelius, Caelius’s wife is kidnapped. No matter what Caelius must defend his maps to the death. They hold the key to Rome’s future. He hopes that neither he nor his wife must die to realize it.

Join Edward’s long ago ancestor, Caelius, in his adventures on the far frontiers of the Roman Empire in Germany. They echo the adventures his latter day descendant, Edward Ware, will someday face in his own map plots against the latter-day Germans.

Caesar’s Lost Legions will be sent with the winter IBPA library eblast to college and university librarians.

Caesar Augustus has sent Caelius Antonius to the Roman province of Germania in 9 AD to draw a map of wonders that will lead the legions to a promised land as far East as the River Elbe. There are reports of a a sea port that would serve as a highway to lands as yet unnamed.

Augustus ward, Arminius, a model German turned Roman, has volunteered to lead the legions of Varus there. Caelius awakens one night to find a symbol of Thor’s hammer engraved in the tree bark outside his tent. He senses a spy from some disaffected tribe watching him. He reports the spy to Varus who defers to Arminius. Arminius says that all the Germans are of course watching, delighted that the Romans have come to civilize their benighted country.

Evidence builds of a conspiracy. Caelius reports it to Augustus back in Rome personally. But Augustus refuses to listen. Arminius was his ward who had lived in his house in Rome, and Caesar had never had a son of his own. Arminius was his blind spot. As a warning to Caelius, Caelius’s wife is kidnapped. No matter what Caelius must defend his maps to the death. They hold the key to Rome’s future. He hopes that neither he nor his wife must die to realize it.

Join Edward’s long ago ancestor, Caelius, in his adventures on the far frontiers of the Roman Empire in Germany. They echo the adventures his latter day descendant, Edward Ware, will someday face in his own map plots against the latter-day Germans.

In Unlocking Trinity the Ware’s little girl has been kidnapped by Hitler and forced to live with him at the Berghof. But when Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin Bunker on April 30, 1945, what happens to the child who has been indoctrinated as a Nazi, who has forgotten that English is her native language?

Her biological father, General Lord Edward Ware, must defy Eisenhower’s order to leave Berlin to the Russians. He must get to her before Stalin’s henchwoman does. It becomes a race to Trinity in the wilds of New Mexico in the birth trauma of the Cold War.

In Caesar’s Lost Legions Caesar Augustus has sent Caelius Antonius to the Roman province of Germania in 9 AD to draw a map of wonders that will lead the legions to a promised land as far East as the River Elbe. There are reports of a a sea port that would serve as a highway to lands as yet unnamed.

Augustus ward, Arminius, a model German turned Roman, has volunteered to lead the legions of Varus there. Caelius awakens one night to find a symbol of Thor’s hammer engraved in the tree bark outside his tent. He senses a spy from some disaffected tribe watching him. He reports the spy to Varus who defers to Arminius. Arminius says that all the Germans are of course watching, delighted that the Romans have come to civilize their benighted country.

Evidence builds of a conspiracy. Caelius reports it to Augustus back in Rome personally. But Augustus refuses to listen. Arminius was his ward who had lived in his house in Rome, and Caesar had never had a son of his own. Arminius was his blind spot. As a warning to Caelius, Caelius’s wife is kidnapped. No matter what Caelius must defend his maps to the death. They hold the key to Rome’s future. He hopes that neither he nor his wife must die to realize it.

Join Edward’s long ago ancestor, Caelius, in his adventures on the far frontiers of the Roman Empire in Germany. They echo the adventures his latter day descendant, Edward Ware, will someday face in his own map plots against the latter-day Germans.